Magic: The Gathering - Tactics Plays Its Last Card

[IanDavis]

Magic: The Gathering - Tactics Plays Its Last Card

The turn-based spin-off gets a slow death, three years after launch.

While [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/previews/10563-Duels-of-the-Planeswalkers-2014-Expansion-Preview]Duals of the Planeswalkers[/a] is pretty popular, it isn't the only Magic video game. No, I'm not talking about [a href=https://accounts.onlinegaming.wizards.com/]Magic Online[/a], or even [a href=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aQck4xXp5Cc]Battlemage[/a], that ancient Playstation game. No, I'm talking about Magic: The Gathering - Tactics, a spin-off game run by Sony Online Entertainment. Haven't heard of it? Apparently you're not alone, as SOE has announced that it's prepping the game for a [a href=https://forums.station.sony.com/soe/index.php?threads/magic-the-gathering-tactics-sunsets-march-28-2014.11500062800/]2014 shutdown[/a].

Magic Tactics was an attempt to expand the turn-based strategy game outside the confines of cards, whether electronic or paper. [a href=http://www.escapistmagazine.com/articles/view/editorials/reviews/8684-Magic-the-Gathering-Tactics-Review]Our review[/a] gave it three out of five stars, saying that it still had some rough spots to iron out. For unspecified reasons, Magic Tactics is getting the axe after three short years of operation.

If you're curious about this Magic spin-off or just want to revisit old times, you have until March 2014. Starting November, the in-game store will shut down, stopping anyone from making regrettable purchases. However, all your Station Cash will stay on your account, so you can use it on other SOE games. After that, Magic Tactics will hemorrhage its remaining player base, as the servers slowly creep towards the sleep that is death.

Source: [a href=https://forums.station.sony.com/soe/index.php?threads/magic-the-gathering-tactics-sunsets-march-28-2014.11500062800/]SOE[/a]

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[Negatempest]

So lets be honest here. Does anyone believe for a moment that there will be a time in the future that an MMO/online game won't shut down and take all the data with it?... I honestly doubt that will ever happen.

 

[JaceArveduin]

To be honest, the communities known this was coming for the past year or so, but the only question was 'when?' Now we have the answer, and while I personally had some fun times with the game, it's been going downhill for the past year and a half or more. The way SOE treated this game has shown me not to trust the company, so I doubt I'll ever spend money on a SOE product again.

To be honest, I'd rather spend it on SAGA, which while it's had a rough life itself, at least they're trying.

 

[Naqel]

It was going to fail from the start.
For the concept to work, you don't just need a strong franchise, you need to do it justice.

As it was, the game had a severe lack of content, and it never really picked up any sort of reasonable pace at adding more.

Not to mention that the gameplay itself and the way it was balanced was so-so at best.

 

[WabbitTwacks]

The tactical combat was pretty ok, but the monetization was just awful. Pay to win. Pay a lot to win even.

 

[Something Amyss]

I remember thinking "meh" when this came out. And I've bought every iteration of Planeswalkers. Even the expansion for the old Microprose game, if you want to be anal.

 

[deth2munkies]

The tactical combat was pretty ok, but the monetization was just awful. Pay to win. Pay a lot to win even.

It wasn't just pay to win, it was pay to actually play the goddamned game. You had to pay to PvP and pay to get each chapter of the story beyond the first. It was impossible to F2P the game.

 

[JaceArveduin]

The tactical combat was pretty ok, but the monetization was just awful. Pay to win. Pay a lot to win even.

It wasn't just pay to win, it was pay to actually play the goddamned game. You had to pay to PvP and pay to get each chapter of the story beyond the first. It was impossible to F2P the game.

Not entirely true, and they worked on this later on, but to do much you honestly did need to invest about 10 bucks during a sale to get the other 5 chapters.

The Balance was off, but I've held my own in bracket tournaments with a budget deck, along with others. Honestly, one of the biggest problems was that there was a bad case of "flavor of the month" mentality among many of it's players, even when it wasn't the best deck. That, and they basically ignored the player-base, even worse than Wargaming seems to do.

 

[mattaui]

Duels of the Planeswalkers, not Duals.

And yes, that Magic Tactics game always seemed out of place, but I suppose they were just trying to capitalize on the license however they could.

 

[MorganL4]

Duels of the Planeswalkers, not Duals.

And yes, that Magic Tactics game always seemed out of place, but I suppose they were just trying to capitalize on the license however they could.

When you have two sets of two planeswalkers its duals,

 

[jackpipsam]

I am not surprised.

SOE hasn't done anything with that game in a while.

 

[SomebodyNowhere]

it was a decent attempt at the tactical genre using the magic characters, but the f2p model really limited play options without spending money